“Analysts reckon that the number of smartphones sold in 2018 will be slightly lower than in 2017, the industry’s first ever annual decline.” “Peak smartphone” may be “bad news for Apple shareholders,” but the apparent “levelling off at around 1.4bn units a year is good news for humanity.”

“Evidence is mounting that the US-China trade war is dealing a blow to the American stock market. Stocks plunged on Thursday after Apple (AAPL) blamed a big sales miss on slowing growth in China and rising trade tensions. China’s massive manufacturing sector… has tumbled into contraction. And trade trouble helped fuel the biggest one-month decline in US factory activity since the Great Recession.”

“If Silicon Valley’s relative decline heralded the rise of a global web of thriving, rival tech hubs, that would be worth celebrating. Unfortunately, the Valley’s peak looks more like a warning that innovation everywhere is becoming harder.”

“Alarming new evidence” indicates “that insect populations worldwide are in rapid decline.” We need to take the “proven steps” that can slow the decline even as we look for ways to reverse it. “The fate of the world’s insects is inseparable from our own.”

“Despite an influx of 1.2m refugees over the past two years, Germany’s population faces near-irreversible decline. According to predictions from the UN in 2015, two in five Germans will be over 60 by 2050 and Europe’s oldest country will have shrunk to 75m from 82m.”

“California’s majestic Oroville Dam is currently in danger of spillway failure in a season of record snow and rainfall. That could spell catastrophe for thousands who live below it and for the state of California at large that depends on its stored water. The poor condition of the dam is almost too good a metaphor for the condition of the state as a whole; its possible failure is a reflection of California’s civic decline.”

“Mr Trump will not reverse America’s relative decline. The chances are he will drastically accelerate it…. The US-led international order as we knew it for 70 years is over. “ While much focus will be “on Mr Trump’s dealings with Mr Putin,” that’s strictly short term. “The long-term trajectory is towards China.” Going forward, things “will not be pretty. Europe will be the loser. So too will American prestige.”

Expectations are low as U.S. companies prepare to report first quarter results. Consensus forecasts “show a decline in first quarter earnings of more than 4 percent, with anticipated shortfalls across all sectors. This represents the largest downward revisions since the first quarter of 2009.”